


Prejudice and Pride

by FjordSwallowsSwords



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Asexual Spencer Reid, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Character of Color, LGBTQ Themes, Lesbian Emily Prentriss, Other, Podfic Welcome, Pride Parades, Warning: Aphobia, Warning: biphobia, Warning: homophobic slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:54:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24546490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FjordSwallowsSwords/pseuds/FjordSwallowsSwords
Summary: “We’re here! We’re queer! We shouldn’t have to live in fear!”“Could have told me this was a pride protest.” Emily gave Reid a small bump against the shoulder.“We’re here! We’re queer! We shouldn’t have to live in fear!”“They have a point.”Or, a small LGBTQIA+ Pride related Criminal Minds Oneshot
Relationships: Derek Morgan & Original Character(s), Emily Prentriss & Original Characters, Original Character/Original Character, Spencer Reid & Original Character(s), The BAU Team & Original Character(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 100





	Prejudice and Pride

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheHoardingPuffin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHoardingPuffin/gifts).



> Okay people... This work is my first one ever, so be nice. Also, this is a gift for the wonderful Lotta @TheHoardingGoblin for Pride Month, my personal bi-ace legend. She is currently going through a rough time, and after a looooong discussion on the lack of LGBTQIA+ content on Criminal Minds (especially when it would have been so easy to write it in) I decided to write this for her in hopes to cheer her up.   
> So, for clarification: In the setting of this specific oneshot, I did write Emily as gay, and she is outed to at least some folks on the team, like Garcia, Reid or Morgan. However, she is not actively involved in the LGBTQIA+ community and not up to date with what is going on inside the community. Also Reid is biromantic/ace in this one but hasn't come out nor has he fully realized it yet, which is VERY background though.   
> I also wrote a bunch of OCs for this one, since it was pretty much inevitable, but any character you recognize does not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them.   
> Also, obviously, as a teen boy living in France, english is not my first language and also I have NO clue of how working for the FBI is so... yeah. Do not expect perfect language nor accuracy. This is for fun and for you to enjoy.  
> Okay that should be all. Enjoy and please leave some comments it would literally mean the world to me!
> 
> xoxo FjordSwallowsSwords

**pride**

**/prʌɪd/**

_confidence and self-respect as expressed by members of a group, typically one that has been socially marginalized, on the basis of their shared identity, culture, and experience._

****

**_It isn't possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal. ~_ ** **E.M. Forster**

It was warm, sun shining bright, and the air was filled with distorted music and shouting as Dr. Spencer Reid and Agent Emily Prentriss made their way back to work after their break.

Reid eyed his half-empty coffee cup suspiciously. “Ever since they reopened that place, their coffee’s been tasting weird. Don’t you think?”

“I think it’s a wonder you can even taste the coffee under all that sugar and syrup… d’you hear that?”

Reid stopped and listened. “The protest?”

“There’s a protest?”

“It was on the paper, yeah... an activist group got their right to march today…”

They kept walking, crossed the street and yup, sure enough, there was the aforementioned protest. Rainbow banners, signs written on cardboard, a group of youngsters marching and shouting.

“Two, Four, Six, Eight! How Do You Know Your Kids Are Straight?”

“Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Homophobia's got to go!”

“We’re here! We’re queer! We shouldn’t have to live in fear!”

“Could have told me this was a pride protest.” Emily gave Reid a small bump against the shoulder.

“Why?”

Emily just raised an eyebrow at that. Realization crept onto Reid’s face.

“Oh. Yeah. Well… even if I had told you, it’s not like you could have jumped right into it. You’re _working_!”

“Fair.”

“Good, you’re back.”

Garcia handed Reid and Emily each a file as soon as they stepped through the door.

“Aaaaand a good morning to you, too…” Emily started flipping through the pages. “New case?”

“You guessed it.”

“Two teenagers, dead, one last week, the other… just this morning?” Reid frowned and looked at the two photos attached to the file. One showed a Caucasian boy with dark hair, the other one a dark-skinned girl with neon pink braids. “Death by… asphyxiation, but no signs of ropes et cetera… so likely not suicide… No physical resemblance.”

“And they probably didn’t even know each other”, Morgan added from his seat. “Different schools, different parts of the city, different interests.”

“Then how _are_ these connected?”, Emily asked.

“In no way but one. Look at the back of your files.”

Reid nodded and promptly went to the last page. There were two photos, side by side… just a few words, painted onto a wall with dark teal marker. _You don’t belong!_

“Belong where?”, Morgan asked, as if thinking out loud. “I mean, this could be anything, could be… referring to a club, a team of sorts…”

“Unlikely.” Reid shook his head. “You just said they didn’t share any similarities. The chances of them wanting to be in the same club are… slim.”

“Well, they must have had something in common.” JJ said. “At least we know it wasn’t a racially motivated crime.”

“Do we?” Emily raised her eyebrows. “Maybe the boy supported the Black community and got targeted because of that?”

“Doesn’t make sense with the message.” Reid frowned. “Were any kind of interviews done? With parents, friends and so on?”

“A few”, Morgan confirmed. “But neither families know anything, and no similarities as far as we know.”

Emily sighed and slammed the files down on the table. “Okay, so, what do we do now?”

“Garcia will look into both victims online presence and possible medical records”, Morgan explained. “JJ and Emily, you’ll will go question the family and neighbours of Eliza once again, Reid and I question James’ family. Can’t ever be too sure.”

Well, said and done. The apartment of late James’ family was close by and so Morgan and Reid decided to walk. On their way, they passed the protesters again. They had stopped their march to kneel on the road, banners and flags high above their heads.

A young woman with a megaphone was the only one standing. “We are here!”, she called out, and the other protesters all around her echoed the same words.

“We are queer!”

“ _We are queer!_ ”

“We shouldn’t have to live in fear!”

“ _We shouldn’t have to live in fear!_ ”

“They have a point.” Reid stumbled, too busy looking at the signs.

James’ father, Mr. Merver, a tall man with dark hair, greying at the temples, opened the door for them, and after a small introduction he let them in.

“My, uh, wife is at her mother’s place. She’s still very shaken.” He pointed at a blue door. “That’s James’ room. Try not to mess it up as you search it, will you?”

“Actually, I wanted to ask you some more questions first, is that okay?” Morgan pointed at Reid. “My colleague will look through the room though.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure…”

Reid took this as his cue to move past them, open the door and entered.

It looked just like any normal teenage boy’s room. Light blue walls, a few posters, a shelf, bed, wardrobe… of course the big, conspicuous writing over the bed. _You don’t belong_.

Reid swallowed and started looking. It didn’t take long, there was nothing helpful. No letters, no diary, hell, there weren’t even so many books, and most of them were age 9-12, clearly hadn’t been read in a long while… dust piling on them…

Except for one. It was part of a series called _Magic Treehouse_ with second title _Warriors in Winter_. It had a roman soldier on the cover… and a small bookmark stuck in the front.

Carefully, Reid pulled it out. It was a white postcard with a pink-blue-purple watercolour gradient painted on the one side. The back had a photo taped to it. It showed a few kids, teenaged and a bit older, standing arm in arm in a line, some of them with colourfully dyed hair, all of them different ethnicities, but with colourful stripes painted on their cheeks. They looked happy, stood tall. Their shirts were black with white pronouns printed on them.

A girl with long red hair had one with _she/her_ , same as a tall boy (who apparently wasn’t actually a boy?) who help two fingers up behind James’ head. And next to James… stood Eliza. The other teen that had been found.

Emily had meanwhile found the same photo in Eliza’s room, hidden in an old baby album.

“So they _did_ know each other”, she said once they reconvened. “And we also now also know what they had in common and why none of the family members knew.”

“We do?”, Hotch asked. Emily rolled her eyes.

“Both were either part of or supporting the LGBTQ”, she explained, holding up the photo she had found in Eliza’s room.

“Actually it’s LGBTQIA+”, Reid interjected. “But yes, that’s what they have in common. It also explains the message – members of the LGBTQIA+ have been targets of hate crimes at least since the 1960s, or rather, that’s when reports of those hate crimes begin.”

“In 2013, 20.8% of hate crimes reported to police was founded on perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, and that is just the ones that were actually reported. The gray number is much bigger probably. We don’t have any newer numbers but they numbers probably only have gone up.”

“And police violence against LGBTQ+ people is also a thing”, Garcia piped up. “Just… just saying.”

“So the message could mean both Eliza and James are LGBTQ and therefor, in opinion of the unsub, don’t belong to the normal population?”, Morgan concluded. “What does that leave us with?”

“Probably a middle-aged white person”, Emily said. “Likely male, very conservative. Middle or upper class…”  
JJ sighed. “That isn’t much to work with…”

“Maybe the other people in the photo know more”, Hotch suggested. “They seem to be friends with our first two victims.”

Reid nodded and looked at the photo again. “Wait a second… The girl here, the redhead, I’ve seen her at the protest today!”

“Are you sure?”

“She… yeah I remember her sign…”

Before he was even aware he was acting, Reid was on his feet and out the door, Emily and Derek on his heels.

The protest had ended, but a few people were still around, no longer really protesting – when the three agents approached, they saw that a mob of white folks had formed, that surrounded the colourful group of protesters, shouting loudly…

A piercing scream cut through the air. Reid’s head flew around and he saw a the familiar redheaded girl stumble backwards, her hand flying up to her temple, another scream coming from her lips, a man with something small and bloodied in his hand standing above her, shouting “Fuck off you fucking dyke!” – He acted in a flash. Jumped between them, grabbed the thing, a water bottle, solid metal, pushed the man back – “On your way, sir! Now, get… just go, go!” – Emily and Derek backed him up, weapons obvious at their belts, and the man scowled, spat out, right into Reid’s face, then walked off…

“Are you okay?” Reid turned around to the girl as his two colleagues broke up the mob. She was still holding her head, blood on her face, in her copper hair, on her shirt… He reached out to try and take a look at the damage, but the girl shrieked and jumped backwards – “GET AWAY FROM ME!”

“Hey, hey, I’m not here to hurt you!” He lifted both hand next to his face. “See? Unarmed. I just wanna help!”

“Yeah sure.” The girl scoffed. “Why the fuck should I trust you?”

Before Reid could answer, there was another girl, darker, taller and leaner, pushing past him, wrapping her arms around the redhead.

“You okay?”, she asked. “He hurt you? Lemme see, here…”

She carefully pried her hands off the other girl’s face, revealing a nasty but probably harmless laceration. “Ouuuu shit… Yo, we need some help over here!”

“Hernandez, I am fine.” The redhead squeezed her eyes shut and hissed as she took a breath. “Mr. Blue Copper intervened…”

“I, I’m not a cop”, Reid said, crouching down as the other girl, Hernandez, lowered her friend to the ground, so that she sat on the edge of the road. “My name is Spencer Reid, I’m with the FBI…”

“Same thing.” The redhead winced. A boy with green long hair came over, handing Hernandez a small kit. Hernandez thanked him and started cleaning her friend’s face and to bandage her wound.

“Listen, I…” Reid handed her the photo. “Is that you?”

“Maybe. Ouch, fuck…”  
“Sorry.” Hernandez looked at Reid, then at Emily and Derek who now stood close by. “What do you want? We’re within our rights, we were allowed to march today. Those men attacked Rosie, not vice versa.”

“We know that, don’t worry”, Derek said, crouching down himself now. “We are here to figure something out.”

“This about James and Knight?”, Hernandez asked.

“James and Eliza”, Derek corrected.

“That’s Knight.” Rosie took a bottle of water from the greenhaired boy and drank in big gulps. “Their nickname’s… was… Knight… is this about them?”  
“Yes.” Spencer held up the photo again. “So this is you?”

“Obviously.” The girl nodded. “Wha-what do you need me for?”

“Are you investigating their murders or their non-existent crimes?”, Hernandez asked sharply.

“Their murders”, Emily said. “The local police couldn’t find anything on the murder. We wondered if their friends knew more. Only their families were interviewed and they didn’t know anything.”  
“We don’t know either”, Rosie said. “But we have an idea.”

“Who?”

“Not a _who_ , but a _why_.” The redhead took a deep breath. “We’re a little group that stands for the oppressed within the oppressed.”

“What does that mean?”, Derek asked.

“It means… that even within the LGBTQIA+, some are facing discrimination from others”, Rosie said. “Bi and asexual people especially, nonbinary folks too. It’s not all of them, but there are gay girls being hostile against bi girls, people who claim asexuals aren’t actually LGBTQ+ and so on. We had this theory after we heard about James, he’s… was… bi and had a few people anonymously post pretty rude comments under his stuff… and the slogan over his bed… and Knight – Eliza – was nonbinary and ace.”

“The slogan? You mean the message?”, Derek asked. Rosie nodded.

“Yeah. Some, some anonymous folks online used it as a hashtag – to bully those they didn’t think that fit into the LGBTQ scene. Bi, ace, enby folks, gays who don’t fit the cliché image of what gay folks should look like, nonbinaries who don’t look androgynous enough for their liking and so on…”

“Were there any death threats posted under that hashtag?”, Spencer asked.

“Not as far as I know”, Rosie said. “Just reposts of the pride flags, Instagram photos of ace and bi and enby people, and the slogan plastered across each new picture.”

“So, basically, we’re back at zero”, Hotch said. “Because instead of for a middle-aged white conservative we are now looking for the one rotten apple in the pile of LGBTQ+ people?”

“Basically, yes.” Reid scratched the back of his head. “We can however exclude anyone who is asexual, bisexual or nonbinary. And if Rosie is right, our unsub is one of the people who used that hashtag online. Garcia, can you hack them?”

“ _That’s a stupid question for a genius_ ”, Garcia’s voice came from the speaker of Derek’s phone. “ _I’m already on it. Will take me a while though. That’s several thousand posts with that hashtag, not all of them LGBTQ related… definitely will take me a while…_ ”

“How long is _a while_?”, JJ asked. “We have no idea when he… or she… will strike again.”

“Actually, Hernandez said that both Eliza and James were at protests the day before they were killed”, Emily interjected. “There was a protest today, and the group that they both were a part of was there too. They’re the most likely to be targeted next since they actively fight against whoever posts under the hashtag #Youdontbelong.”

“The whole group is staying at Rosie’s place, her parents are the only ones that are accepting out of all the member’s parents”, Derek added. “So we should protect those kids right there and wait for Garcia to give us new information.”

“Rosie, can I ask you a question?”

The redheaded girl looked up from the book she was reading.

“Sure.”

Spencer bit down on his lower lip before he actually asked. “Earlier today you were actually afraid of us. Why? I mean, I get that police brutality is something the LGBTQIA face, but… any specific reason?”

“Odd question.” Rosie leaned back in her seat. “Two years ago our little group formed and went to our first Pride protest together. It was in October during Asexual Awareness Week… some aphobic… actually just generally anti-LGBTQ… arseholes attacked us. Cops were there. They did separate the mob, but I was knocked against the head, just like yesterday… and also against the shoulder with a blade. I was dizzy and lost orientation… fell… a cop appeared and handed me a soaked washcloth. Told me to use it to clean the wound. I did… and it wasn’t soaked in water at all.”  
“What was it?”

“Bleach.” She pulled up her sleeve, showing off a healed scar.

Reid hissed. “To be used in first aid, bleach needs to be diluted with water and it’s not recommended...”

“Oh, I know.” Rosie sighed. “I reported him. Full thing. Batch number, description. Nothing. I was told to either let it go or get charged for unauthorized protesting.”

“What?”

“Not the first time that happened.” Hernandez came over from the window where she had been standing and sat down next to Rosie, wrapping one arm around her shoulders. “Three months ago Rosie and I were… out on a date. A group of boys came up, started shouting _Come on, kiss, let’s see how good you are!_ as if we were their personal real life lesbian porn… then they started throwing trash. Paper cups and tissues they had on them. We tried to report. Got asked what we were _doing outside that late in the evening_ and why we were displaying _unprofessional behaviour_ like that.”

“Hunter once almost got kidnapped once, the police did nothing because he’s trans.”

Rosie’s shoulders slumped. “We don’t trust the police because they don’t protect us. Some of us are safer because we’re white but Hernandez or Knight…”

Silence fell over the room. Reid watched the two girls, then Hunter, the green-haired boy who sat on the couch, then Rosie’s parents who stood in the doorframe, shoulders tense.

He thought about Emily upstairs, JJ and Hotch outside, Morgan in the hallway, waiting for Garcia’s call…

“Can I ask you something?”, Rosie asked.   
“Huh? Me?”

“Yeah you. Mr. Not-Blue-Copper.”

“Uh… yeah. Sure. Ask ahead.”

Rosie pulled her legs to her chest. “Is this the first LGBTQ+ case your team has worked on?”

His first instinct was to say _That’s classified_ but instead he decided to tell the truth. He shook his head. He expected the girl to ask further, but she just nodded and leaned against her girlfriend’s shoulder.

It took Garcia three hours to finally find out the names.

“ _Anna Rallay, Sophia Tzech, Matthew Zahn, Thomas Martin and Blake Simmons_ ”, her voice came from the speaker. “ _Those names ring a bell?_ ”

“Only Blake” Rosie answered. “I went to school with her last year before I changed… she’s super aphobic, kind of should have expected this one…”

“Why?”, Morgan asked.   
“I used to date a hetero-romantic ace guy. Before I realized I was gay. Blake kept bullying us, saying he’s got no place in the LGBTQ+ because he’s _just a prude hetero guy_. She’s very much against cis-het people, right out demonizing them, as if their sexuality was their choice or something…” The girl pulled a face.

“You didn’t mention her name when you told us about your suspicions earlier”, Emily noticed.

Rosie shrugged. “Just because she’s aphobic doesn’t mean she’s part of that group, and I didn’t have proof.”

“Well, we might have proof very soon”, Derek said bitterly. “Hey, babygirl, you wouldn’t happen to have any pictures of those kids, would’ya?”

“ _Already on your phone, my gorgeous honeybadger_.”

“You’re an angel, woman.”

“ _I know_.”

“Uh, Derek? Garcia?”, Spencer piped up. “Case? Photos?”

Another good hour later, there was someone at the window, snapping the lock and pushing it up, crawling into the room. They were dressed in black, with gloves, a mask and a small pillow in one hand.

They had undone the lights to make a trap, Rosie’s parents standing still in the kitchen, Emily cowering on top of the stairs, the kids in the living room, Reid watching over them from a dark corner, Morgan in the hallway… the intruder stalked over to where Hernandez and Rosie pretended to sleep… and –

“Hey there! You! Freeze! Drop your… pillow!”

Suddenly, light, weapons drawn, intruder in the open – the pillow they doubtlessly had used to smother Eliza and James in their sleep fell to the floor –

“Remove your mask”, Derek ordered.

Shaking hands reached up and undid the black skimask… revealing a young man with light skin and blue hair…

“Matthew Zahn”, Derek drawled. “Imma have to ask you to come with us.”

The next day, Matthew Zahn had been arrested for the murder of Eliza Knight Vaughan and James Merver as well as the attempted murder of Felicitas Hernandez and Rosie Jones.

Three days later, he was on trial, and the BAU received a small basket full of rainbow-coloured cookies from the group they had helped. The small rainbow flag that was taped to the side mystheriously disappeared, and if the new bookmark Emily used looked suspiciously similar, nobody on the team meantioned it.

Nine days later, Spencer Reid had read over twenty studies and two books on the history and details of LGBTQIA+ identities.

Seventeen days later, there was another Pride march, on the first of June. An online magazine featured a photo of Rosie marching at the front, holding a shield painted in pinks, reds, whites and oranges, which black writing saying _My FBI agents support my gay ass!_

Several months later, in October, Penelope Garcia noticed that one of Reid’s socks were striped black, grey white and purple. He also wore a small black ring on his right middle finger. She didn’t outright mention it, but a day later, he found a tiny purple plush dragon clutching a plush cake on his desk.

**_"How many years has it taken people to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race?" ~ Marsha P. Johnson_ **


End file.
